Innie minnie miny, innie minnie miny moe, innie minnie miny moe, those're coming to me everybody innie minnie miny moe, innie minnie miny moe, innie minnie miny moe, which one really is it you, is it her, is it this girl is it you, is it her, is it her which one will it be? Au revoir, hello, like a start you glow damn you look so good. Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, Catch the tiger/monkey/baby by the toe. If it hollersUSA/screamsUK let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, mo. The rhyme is used by groups of children as a way of selecting someone to take a role that is different from the others. Mar 19, 2010 Eenie meenie miney moe, catch a bad chick by her toe If she holla, la, la, la she holla let her go Shorty is a eenie meenie miney mo lover Shorty is a eenie meenie miney mo lover. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” also known as “Eena, meena, mina, mo” is a popular counting rhyme and singing game. It is very hard to establish the exact origin of the song as it has so many accepted forms, in different languages and countries. Innie minnie miny, innie minnie miny moe, Innie minnie miny moe, those're coming to me Everybody innie minnie miny moe, Innie minnie miny moe, innie minnie miny moe, Which one really is it you, is it her, Is it this girl is it you, is it her, is it her Which one will it be? Au revoir, hello, like a.
For centuries children’s songs have been used to introduce little ones to language, rhythm, rhyme and cultural history. Many of us have fond memories of singing songs on playgrounds and in schoolyards. Unfortunately, many of our most beloved children’s songs have a very dark history;
1. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe
1. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe
Just the other day I took my girls to the park. A large group of elementary school aged children on a field trip ran over to the playground and I overheard them reciting the popular rhyme: Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe. They recited in the same context that I did as child, as we choose who was “it” playing hide and go seek. I did not hear them say the whole rhyme, but I imagine they said it as we did:
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (pages 184-187) this rhyme may have derived from the following rhyme that was recited by children in New York as early as 1815
Eenie Meenie Miney Mo Lyrics Uk
Hana, mana, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, venac ;
Harrico, warrico, we, wo, wac. Insite 8.1 keygen update.
There are versions of this rhyme in French and German but the American English version of this rhyme was found in “colloquial use in almost every State of the Union” in 1888. The lyrics printed in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes are as such:
Ena, meena, mina, mo
Catch a [N-word] by his toe;
If he squeals, let him go,
Ena, meena, mina, mo.
Growing up I never knew that there was a racist version of the rhyme in which the N-word is used in place of “tiger.” Yet, two sisters on a Southwest flight however did have knowledge of the version with the N-word. They unsuccessfully sued Southwest airlines when a flight attendant recited the rhyme in an attempt to get them to find a seat. Although the judge acknowledged that they rhyme had racist origins the jury decided in favor of Southwest Airlines.
2. Bowl of Cherries/Pick a Bale of Cotton
I first heard “Bowl of Cherries” in a children’s indoor play area. The song has the same melody as “Pick a Bale of Cotton.” The cover, “Bowl of Cherries” was adapted by Norman Jones and on his website he writes:
Calling “Pick a Bale of Cotton” an old work song, is like calling a slave master a mean supervisor. The lyrics to this song contain the N-word multiple times. One of the verses according to American Ballads and Folk Songs, goes like this:
Why someone would want to take such a song and convert it to being about eating cherries is beyond me. Apparently some schools have children sing another version of “Pick a Bale of Cotton” in class and school programs. One website dedicated to children’s songs has the following lyrics:
Several twitter users have childhood memories of this song as well.
Random memory: my elementary school music teacher thought nothing of having us sing “Pick A Bale of Cotton” http://t.co/gygLrRKYdW
— Cecily Walker (@skeskali) February 13, 2014
#throwbackthursday when mrs drinnon would make everyone sing pick a bale of cotton every morning before class started. E V E R Y MORNING
— kasandra (@kasie_LOVE) September 21, 2012
@bionicjenn@NePlusUltra Haha! I was just thinking of a song my sis and I sang as kids. You know “Oh, Lordy! Pick a bale of cotton, ” right?
— Amber (@monkandmao) June 23, 2011
Last year some parents in Wisconsin protested the song being part of the music line up.
3. Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport
A couple of years ago my husband and I were watching an episode of 30 Rock called “Meet the Woggles.” In this episode there was an Australian Children’s Band called The Woggles. There was a scene in which one of the band members says, “Woggle Power” and then it is explained that “woggle” means white. I didn’t really get this episode until now. There is actually a real children’s music band in Australia called the “Wiggles.” Among their many recordings is a song called “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” written by Rolf Harris. Like many songs that have racist origins, the most recent versions simply eliminate the racial epithets. However the original version of this song contains a racial slur against Aboriginal Australians.
Let me [A-word] go loose, Lou
Let me [A-word] go loose:
They’re of no further use, Lou
So let me [A-word] go loose.
Harris gave a half hearted apology for these lyrics, then shamed Aboriginal people for their misfortune in Australia. Now the “Woggle Power” reference from 30 Rock makes sense.
4. Oh Susanna
Known to many as a love song and to others as a children’s camp song, “Oh Susanna” has it’s origins in minstrel shows. Written by Stephan C. Foster, a sample of the original lyrics goes like this:
One can do a quick youtube search to find many childrens animations that contain modernized lyrics of “Oh Susanna” w/o the N-word, and updated grammer. There is even a popular cover of this song called “Oh California” that highlights the 1849 Gold Rush. This song is very ingrained in American musical history. However the minstrel origins and use of racial epithets in the original lyrics are enough for me to want to never hear this song again, even with new lyrics. I definitely do not want my children to learn these songs and sing them thinking they are ok.
5. Short’nin Bread
Another song that has deep roots in American history is none other than “Shortnin Bread.” After viewing Donald Duck singing this tune while making pancakes, it would seem that the tune is innocent. Nevertheless, the original lyrics as recorded by American Ballads and Folk Songs By John Avery Lomax are printed as such:
Other verses that can be viewed in the book contain more racial slurs but are usually not present in modern recordings. In more modern recordings, “Mammy” has been replaced with “Mama”, and the “N-word” and “darkies” has been replaced with “children.”
Mommies, what has your experience been with these songs? Have you heard them played in children’s play spaces? Seen them performed in school programs? Watched them in animations? How do you feel about keeping these songs in rotation? Do new lyrics make it ok? Should they still be taught to children as fun songs or only to adults for historical purposes?
Angele is a wife to a wonderful creative husband, mother to two beautiful intelligent daughters and a lover of art, education and laughter. She is the creator and author of ABC remix.
'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe'—which can be spelled a number of ways—is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is either 'chosen' or 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820[1] and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.
Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin.
Current versions[edit]
A common modern version is:[2]
- Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
- Catch a tiger by the toe.
- If he hollers, let him go,
- Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as '.. O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea'[3] or 'My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it';[3] while another source cites 'Out goes Y-O-U.'[4]
Origins[edit]
The first record of a similar rhyme, called the 'Hana, man,' is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:
- Hana, man, mona, mike;
- Barcelona, bona, strike;
- Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
- Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.[3]
Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.[3] Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:
- Ene, tene, mone, mei,
- Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
- Ene, fune, herke, berke,
- Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?[3]
Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this one, which includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version:
- Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;
- Olla bolla Domino,
- Okka, Pokka dominocha,
- Hy! Pon! Tush!
This was one of many variants of 'counting out rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888.[5]
A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:
- Ena, mena, mona, mite,
- Bascalora, bora, bite,
- Hugga, bucca, bau,
- Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.
- Stick, stock, stone dead – OUT.[6]
One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count 'Yan Tan Tethera' or the Cornish 'Eena, mena, mona, mite'.[3]
Another possibility is that British colonials returning from India introduced a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:
- baji neki baji thou,
- elim tilim latim gou.[7]
Another possible origin is from a Swahili poem brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans: Iino ya mmiini maiini mo.[8]
Most likely the origin is a centuries-old, possibly Old Saxon diviner rhyme, as was shown in 1957 by the Dutch philologist dr. Jan Naarding, supported by prof. dr. Klaas Heeroma at the Nedersaksisch Instituut (Low Saxon Institute) at the University of Groningen. They published their findings in an article called Een oud wichellied en zijn verwanten (An old diviner rhyme and its relatives).[9] In part I of the article Naarding explains, why the counting rhyme he found in Twents-Achterhoeks woordenboek (1948), a dictionary by G.H. Wanink, stands close to an early mediaeval or even older archetype. That same version was recorded in 1904 in Goor in Twente by Nynke van Hichtum:
- Anne manne miene mukke,
- Ikke tikke takke tukke,
- Eere vrouwe grieze knech,
- Ikke wikke wakke weg.
Naarding calls its origin 'a heathen priest song, that begs the highest goddess for an oracle while divining, an oracle that may decide about life and death of a human'. The first lines can be translated as 'foremother of mankind, give me a sign, I take the cut off pieces of a branch (= the rune wands).' This explanation was revived and extended in 2016 by Goaitsen van der Vliet, founder of the Twentse Taalbank (Twents Language Bank).[10] The last line of the rhyme (in the Netherlands degenerated to 'iet wiet waait weg') can be translated as 'I weigh it up' (in Dutch 'ik wik en weeg').
American and British versions[edit]
Some versions of this rhyme use the racial slur 'nigger' instead of 'tiger'. Iona and Peter Opie quote the following version:
- Eena, meena, mina, mo,
- Catch a nigger by his toe;
- If he squeals let him go,
- Eena, meena, mina, mo.[3]
This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.[11] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo':
- Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,
- Catch a nigger by the toe,
- If he won't work then let him go;
- Skidum, skidee, skidoo.
- But when you get money, your little bride
- Will surely find out where you hide,
- So there's the door and when I count four,
- Then out goes you.[12]
It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his 'A Counting-Out Song', from Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, published in 1935.[13] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.[3]
Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) that the word 'nigger' was common in American folklore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.[3] This, combined with evidence of various other versions of the rhyme in the British Isles pre-dating this post-slavery version, would seem to suggest that it originated in North America, although the apparently American word 'holler' was first recorded in written form in England in the 14th century, whereas according to the Oxford English Dictionary the words 'Niger' or 'nigger' were first recorded in England in the 16th century with their current disparaging meaning. The 'olla' and 'toe' are found as nonsense words in some 19th century versions of the rhyme. Dealscan database manual.
Variations[edit]
There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from early twentieth century in the United States of America:
- Eeny, meeny, miny moe,
- Catch a tiger by the toe.
- If he hollers make him pay,
- Fifty dollars every day.[3]
During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported: 'Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme:
- Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,
- Catch the emperor by his toe.
- If he hollers make him say:
- 'I surrender to the USA.'[14]
A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, is:
- Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.
- Put the baby on the po.
- When he's done,
- Wipe his bum.
- And tell his mother what he's done.[15] (Alternatively: Shove the paper up the lum)[16]
The most common version in New Zealand is:
- Eeny, meeny, miny moe,
- Catch a tiger by the toe.
- If he squeals, let him go,
- Eeny, meeny, miny moe.
- Pig snout you're out.[4]
Controversies[edit]
- In 1993, a high school teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, provoked a student walkout when she said, in reference to poor test performance, 'What did you do? Just go eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a nigger by the toe?' The school's district superintendent recommended the teacher 'lose three days of pay, undergo racial sensitivity training, and have a memorandum detailing the incident placed in her personnel file'.[17]
- A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlinesflight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both 'Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go' and 'Pick a seat, it's time to go'. The passengers in question were African American and stated that they were humiliated due to what they called the 'racist history' of the rhyme. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal was denied.[18]
- In May 2014, an unbroadcast outtake of BBC motoring show Top Gear showed presenter Jeremy Clarkson reciting the rhyme and deliberately mumbling a line which some took to be 'catch a nigger by his toe'.[19] In response to accusations of racism, Clarkson apologised to viewers that his attempts to obscure the line 'weren't quite good enough'.[20]
- In 2017, the retailer Primark pulled a T-shirt from its stores that featured the first line of the rhyme as spoken by The Walking Dead character Negan, overlaid with an image of his baseball bat. A customer, minister Ian Lucraft, complained the T-shirt was 'fantastically offensive' and claimed the imagery 'relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America.'[21]
Cultural significance[edit]
There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of 'Eeny meeny ..' is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,[22][23] the 2003 film Elephant,[24] and the sixth-season finale of the AMC television series The Walking Dead. In Let the Tiger Go, a documentary on tiger conservation released on YouTube in 2017, the poem is read by Alan Rabinowitz in advocacy for ending the poaching of tigers for their body parts.[25] The very title of the documentary is implied to be an allusion to the poem.
Music[edit]
The vinyl release of Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997) uses the words 'eeny meeny miny moe' (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.[26]
Eenie Meenie Records is a Los Angeles-based music record label.
The names of many songs include some or all of the phrase, including:
Innie Minnie Miny Moe Lyrics
- 'Eenie Meanie Miny Ho' released by Tech N9ne on June 7, 2011
- Eeny Meeny Miny Moe by the Dutch group Luv in 1979
- 'Eenie Meenie' by Jeffrey Osborne on self-titled 1982 album.
- 'Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo' by Danish pop group Toy-Box in 1999 from their first album 'Fantastic.'
- 'Need to Know (Eenie Meenie Miny Moe)' by the Swedish pop group Excellence in 2001.
- 'Eenie Meenie' by Jamaican-American singer Sean Kingston and Canadian singer Justin Bieber in 2010.
- 'Eenie Meenie Minie Moe' by Peach Kelli Pop from album 'Peach Kelli Pop I' recorded in 2010.
- 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe' is a song on A Shared Dream, a 2012 album by South Korea group U-KISS.
- 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!' by Japanese dance and vocal unit Sandaime J Soul Brothers on 2015 album 'Planet Seven'.
- 'Eeny Meeny Miny Moe' is a song by Arizona hip hop trio Injury Reserve on their 2016 album 'Floss'
- 'Eeny meeny miney mo' by Billie Holiday in 1935
- The rhyme inspired the song 'Eena Meena Deeka' in the 1957 Bollywood film Aasha.
Literature[edit]
The title of Chester Himes's novel If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) refers to the rhyme.[27]
In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.[28]
Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfenovella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.
Innie Minnie Miny Moe Lyrics Sean Sahand
Film and television[edit]
In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series.[29]
The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as 'TNT pictures', whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto 'Eenie Meanie Minie Moe' in the place of MGM's 'Ars Gratia Artis'.
The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor.[30]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe Lyrics Justin Bieber
- ^I. & P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 1952), p. 12.
- ^Donna Wood (1971). Move, Sing, Listen, Play. Alfred Music 01101 Publishing. p. 75. ISBN1-4574-9680-1.
- ^ abcdefghijI. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 156-8.
- ^ abL. and W. Bauer, 'Choosing Who's In/It'(PDF). 2002. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
- ^H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888)
- ^Fred Jago The Glossary of the Cornish Dialect (1882)
- ^Nihar Ranjan Mishra, From Kamakhya, a socio-cultural study (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2004), p. 157.
- ^Bennett, P.R. (1974). Remarks on a little-known Africanism. Ba Shiru, 6(1), 69-71.
- ^J. Naarding en K.H. Heeroma, Een oud wichellied en zijn verwanten, in: Driemaandelijkse Bladen, 1957, p. 37-43. Online at the Twentse Taalbank.
- ^Goaitsen van der Vliet, Germaans uit Goor, in: Aold Hoksebarge, nummer 49.2 (juli 2016), p. 4216-4218. Online at Historiek (titled: 'Iene miene mutte' komt voort uit oud Oostnederlands wichellied).
- ^H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888, Kessinger Publishing, 2006), pp. 46 and 105.
- ^B. Fitzgibbon, Words and music, 'Eeny, meeny, miny, mo'F. B. Haviland Publishing Co (1906).
- ^R. Kipling, R. T. Jones, G. Orwell, eds The Works of Rudyard Kipling (Wordsworth Editions, 1994), p. 771.
- ^Myrdal, Gunnar (1944). Black and African-American Studies: American Dilemma, the Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Transaction Publishers. ISBN9781412815116.
- ^I. Opie and P. Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 36.
- ^Mills, Anne E. (6 December 2012). The Acquisition of Gender: A Study of English and German. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN9783642713620 – via Google Books.
- ^Sink, Lisa (1993-01-19). 'Longer suspension for teacher urged'. Milwaukee Sentinel.
- ^'Sawyer v. Southwest Airlines'. Ca10.washburnlaw.edu. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
- ^'Jeremy Clarkson: I didn't mean to use N-word – video| News | The Week UK'. Theweek.co.uk. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
- ^Josh Halliday, Nicholas Watt and Kevin Rawlinson. 'Jeremy Clarkson 'begs forgiveness' over N-word footage | Media'. The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
- ^Burke, Darren (2017-02-21). 'Primark pulls 'shocking' and 'racist' Walking Dead t-shirt from stores after Sheffield man's angry complaint'. The Star. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
- ^S. Willis, High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film (Duke University Press, 1997), ISBN0-8223-2041-X, p. 199.
- ^J. Naisbitt, N. Naisbitt and D. Philips, High Tech High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2001), ISBN1-85788-260-1, p. 85.
- ^A. Young, The Scene of Violence: Cinema, Crime, Affect (Routledge, 2009), ISBN1-134-00872-4, p. 39.
- ^Rabinowitz, Alan (December 10, 2017). 'Let The Tiger Go - Courtesy of GoPro'. YouTube.
- ^D. Griffiths, OK Computer (Continuum, 2004), p. 32.
- ^G. H. Muller, Chester Himes (Twayne, 1989), ISBN0-8057-7545-5, p. 23.
- ^M. Kimmich, Offspring Fictions: Salman Rushdie's Family Novels(Rodopi, 2008), ISBN9042024909, p. 209.
- ^J. Lenburg Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators (Hal Leonard, 2006), ISBN1-55783-671-X, p. 197.
- ^Slide, Anthony (1998). Banned in the U.S.A.: British Films in the United States and Their Censorship, 1933–1966. I.B. Tauris. ISBN1-86064-254-3. Retrieved 2008-10-02. p. 90.
Further reading[edit]
- The counting-out rhymes of children: their antiquity, origin, and wide distribution; a study in folk-lore, Henry Carrington Bolton, 1888 (online version at archive.org)
- More Counting-out Rhymes, H. Carrington Bolton in The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 10, No. 39 (Oct. - Dec., 1897), pp. 313–321. Published by: American Folklore Society DOI: 10.2307/533282 Stable URL: (online version at JStor)
- Gregor, Walter, 1891: Counting-out rhymes of children (online version at archive.org
- SKVR XII1 2837. Alatornio. PLK. A 2212. -15 (online version at SKVR.fi)
- Ikola, Osmo: Entten tentten teelikamentten. Erään lastenlorun arvoitus. Virittäjä 1/2002. Kotikielen Seura. Viitattu 11.12.2011 (pdf at kotikielenseura.fi)
Innie Minnie Miny Moe Lyrics
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